Yesterday’s News…

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Was the wait between season halves worth it? Did Breaking Bad come back with a bang? Oh, yes. Yes it did.

After a flash forward of Walt breaking into the shambles of his former home to fetch some hidden poison, we are treated to a quick reminder of where we left off. Cause that’s what we wanna see: more Hank on the toilet.

Hank feigns illness to leave the party and drives home in a blind rage. He gets himself so worked up that he crashes through someone’s picket fence. Eventually he recovers and gets busy working. He scours his old Fring files and finds some damning evidence against Walt. After all these years, he’s finally cracked the case.

Meanwhile, Walt is happily living the carefree life of a humble carwash owner. He ponders air freshener merchandising with the same gusto formerly reserved for bombing nursing homes. He suggests that they buy a second carwash for appearances sake and to expedite money laundering, which they will be doing for the rest of their lives. When Lydia shows up to ask Walt to come back and train the new cooks, Skyler kicks her out so fast her head spins.

Jesse isn’t as carefree as Walt. He is catatonic with guilt and even the antics of Skinny Pete and Badger (who we learn are Trekkies) can’t pull him out of his funk. He visits Saul Goodman and asks him to split his $5M between Mike’s granddaughter and the parents of the little boy they killed. Saul tries to talk some sense into him, but Jesse won’t hear no reason, bitch. He smoked a joint in Saul’s waiting room to get bumped to the front of the line. Mental note: try this at the DMV.

Walt returns the cash to Jesse and tells him that he needs to move on from the darkness of their past. I’m pretty bummed that Jesse still has a futon. I mean, he has five million bucks in duffel bags. Buy a couch! Jesse tells Walt he knows Mike is dead, but Walt denies it wholeheartedly. Later, Jesse drives around and starts throwing stacks of cash out the windows. I can imagine how happy everyone will be tomorrow morning when they wake up to get the paper and find that the money fairy paid a visit. Jesse is really cracking up. I hate seeing him this way.

We learn Walt’s cancer is back when we see him getting chemo. Later he’s getting sick in the bathroom and notices his copy of Leaves of Grass is missing. He starts to put two and two together and realizes Hank probably took it. When he finds a tracking device on his car, his suspicions are confirmed.

The episode ends with a confrontation between Walt and Hank. I love that they didn’t drag this out. Boom! Instant gratification for the fans. Hank punches Walt in the face. Walt says there’s no point in trying to bring him to justice as he’ll be dead in six months and he’ll never make it to prison. Hank states that he doesn’t even know who Walt is, and Walt suggests that maybe his next course is to tread very lightly. A pretty direct threat. Heavy!

What did you think of the episode? Any guesses on how it’ll all end? I have laid out how I think the story will play out. But I’m sure we’ll be in for some surprises.

I agree, definitely a very splashy season opener. I am tickled silly that Skyler finally grew some and got all aggressive with Lydia. Of course, Lydia is the poster child for Generalized Anxiety Disorder and is a classic neurotic (personally, I think she chews her toenails), so she was pretty easy to intimidate. I’m psyched about hanging in to the gritty end with Walt and Skyler. After all, I really want to know where those fashionable plaid curtains end up.

Hahaha! I was thinking the exact same thing about Jesse’s couch. And what an amazing oh-shit-it’s-really-happening climax! I’m ever so thankful they didn’t drag the Hank/Walt confrontation. I also found it interesting how badly Walt needed Jesse to believe that Mike was alive. Like they discussed during Talking Bad (are you watching that?), it’s as if Walt NEEDS him to believe so as to not need a reason to kill Jesse. Jesse’s the last shred of humanity Walt has left.